“With their newly minted House majority, Democrats will quickly have to strike a balance between their base’s desire to seek revenge on President Donald Trump and their electoral mandate to actually get something done. That means talking about wonky things like trade and taxes — and yes, on some issues they may even have some common ground with a president so hated by the left."

Politico

“The first five things the Democrats should do with their House majority: raise the federal minimum wage to $15... strengthen the Affordable Care Act... restore the Voting Rights Act... a simple, non-porked-up infrastructure bill... [and] a clean bill... that grants legal status to the immigrant children known as ‘dreamers.’"

Some posit that “Democrats won the House because of Obamacare... for the almost infinite list of reasons voters broke the Republican hammerlock on the House, health care has been the dominant theme. It is their most visceral and undeniable betrayal of their promises to the voters. Attempting to repeal Obamacare probably cost Republicans the House."

New York Magazine

Others argue that “Trump has tried to make the election about us versus them, with them defined as Muslims, African Americans, and immigrants. But the real us versus them is everyone who works paycheck to paycheck versus Wall Street... Even where the Democrat did not win, we can also see how much better they did than the Democrat did in the same seat in 2016 or 2014, by using a clear progressive pocketbook message."

The American Prospect

Many warn Democrats that “control of the House means much-needed investigations of Trump. Make sure they’re serious and fair... Strong direction will be needed to set priorities and to prevent opportunistic committee and subcommittee chairmen from seeking daily headlines... [This is] a potential nightmare for the White House but also a political minefield for the winners."

Bloomberg

From the Right

The right is disappointed that the GOP lost the House, but takes solace in holding the Senate.

“President Trump didn’t need to win in Tuesday’s midterms so much as he needed to avoid disaster. And that’s pretty much what happened... keeping control of the Senate means there is no danger that the tax cuts and deregulatory measures of the first two years of his term will be rolled back. Crucially, the Republican campaign to redraw the federal courts with a steady stream of conservative judges can and will continue."

Wall Street Journal

“Democrats appear to have mustered only a slim majority in the House, while not even coming close to taking over the Senate. Their win in the House seems at best to have been in line with historical averages; they had expected more... they spent big in hopes the Resistance would blast through the Red Wall of the Senate, only to find that President Trump’s supporters stood by their man."

Fox News

Nevertheless, “Democrats decisively control one half of one branch of government, a part of the government with considerable power. Don’t be surprised if they use it as aggressively as they can against Donald Trump... Prepare yourself for partisan confrontations that exceed anything we’ve seen during the first two years of the Trump presidency. The battle of Trump versus the media will pale in comparison to the battle of Trump versus an energized, confident Democratic House."

National Review

“The House will now be at the center of the #Resistance in Washington. Democrats will wield committee chairmanships and subpoena power, and you can bet that several major investigations will be launched against the administration when the next Congress is officially sworn in. The GOP Senate, however, will provide the White House with an ally on Capitol Hill and a formidable check on whatever bills soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi jams through the chamber."

“After every Republican electoral defeat, there is a very stupid debate about which demographic group they should pursue. Should it be an expansion of the downwardly mobile white Trump voter? Should it be the most upwardly mobile minorities? Or should it be the working-family demographic among Hispanics and blacks? My advice is that Republicans should choose ‘all of the above.’"